I'm repairing a fairly tatty 5x7 Model B I bought years ago. The original metal appears to have a grey/black finish - paint? Does anyone have any suggestions on matching this? Is it really paint or something else? Looks like a semi-gloss finish is correct? Thanks!

Depends on the model age--original was not paint, it was oxidized silver---later they started with paint (primarily on the square type hardware)-----I use dark grey "engine block paint"---and heat in oven at 170 degrees for about 30 minutes to harden it! During WW 2, they painted the hardware black, also use the engine block paint there! Been doing this for over 20 years, and it holds up very nicely! Bert

an update on paint: what I used was Floquil paints, available in model railroad stores. It is a solvent based paint (keep it off plastic!), which has some nice properties. 1) Weathered black is really close to the greyish black of my graflex hardware 2) it is a very flat finish, but they sell a gloss additive so you can make it that little bit glossyish. 3) I makes a VERY thin finish that doesn't obscure details.

I mixed mostly weathered black with a bit of reefer orange (to warm it) and some hull cream I had around (to warm it and lighten it just a bit, and added a bit of the gloss additive. Second time around I got the mix right. I'm VERY pleased with the result. FWIW I put too much gloss additive in the first time.

Ditto on the Floquil. I've been using this product for many years, in fact I have some bottles purchased in the 1960s and the paint is still usable! It's great on metal or wood, doesn't leave brush marks (if you use a good quality sable brush), and also airbrushes very nicely. It is usable on plastic if you first coat the surfaces with Floquil Barrier (I think it's called) which is made for the purpose. And I love the smell of Dio-Sol, the solvent! (hey, isn't that what it's all about?)

The only problem is that within a day or two after painting, all the Graphic nameplates change over to read "Pennsylvania RR."

On 2002-07-11 08:32, Henry wrote:
Ditto on the Floquil. I've been using this product for many years, in fact I have some bottles purchased in the 1960s and the paint is still usable! It's great on metal or wood, doesn't leave brush marks (if you use a good quality sable brush), and also airbrushes very nicely. It is usable on plastic if you first coat the surfaces with Floquil Barrier (I think it's called) which is made for the purpose. And I love the smell of Dio-Sol, the solvent! (hey, isn't that what it's all about?)

The only problem is that within a day or two after painting, all the Graphic nameplates change over to read "Pennsylvania RR."

But Henry. Graflex' engineers trained at BLH. What else would you expect?